Electric and hybrid electric vehicles, both existing cars and concept cars, have gained popularity in recent years as a result of rising gasoline cost, longer commute times, traffic congestion and increased public awareness on the consequences of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and the use of foreign oil.
The reality of domestic crude oil drilling is that there is not enough equipment or refineries to process enough recovered crude oil to meet our immediate demands. Any crude recovered won't be ready for public consumption for at least eight years. Two other options that are being used to bridge the gap between foreign oil importation, domestic oil production and new technologies are ethanol and compressed natural gas. Both fuels solve the problem of America's dependence on foreign sources of oil. Neither fuel solves the problems of greenhouse gas emissions and complete renewable energy sources.
Ethanol is produced in the US from corn or switchgrass, as opposed to sugar ethanol produced in South America, and is utilized as both a fuel additive and straight fuel source. While ethanol fuel is cleaner than gasoline, the process to produce ethanol is rife with greenhouse gas-producing sources, including ethanol-generating facilities that burn coal to transform corn to ethanol.
Compressed natural gas (CNG) is a fossil fuel source and found in abundance in the US. While it is a cleaner combustion fuel, it still produces greenhouse gases. The innovation surrounding CNG will be directed primarily to four things: recovery of CNG, gas station retrofitting to accept CNG, since the tanks needed to store this fuel source are larger, retooling of transportation production lines to produce engines that can accept CNG, and scrubbing exhaust streams of greenhouse gases.
The “holy grail” in the area of automobile development is to give the consumer unlimited car options, while at the same time significantly improving fuel efficiency, moving to zero emission engines and traveling long distances without charging, if the car is electric. Car buyers do not want to be forced to purchase small cars with little/no storage space, power or hauling capacity.
Developers are also utilizing new sources of power generation, such as solar and turbines, to provide power to new engines. Obviously, both of these power sources are renewable and do not rely on complex processes for recovery, refinement and production. Key innovations in this particular technology will improve the efficiency and size of solar panels and components, along with similar advancements in turbine development. These innovations are already taking place with solar and wind turbine power generation on a large scale.
Once the power is generated and backup power is stored, the next step is giving the car enthusiast a reason to get excited about driving these new cars. Most of this excitement comes from the ability to move quickly with power over different terrains without loss of performance.
Technology has come far enough along to make the concept of an “ideal vehicle” a reality for the typical consumer. The ideal vehicle is powered by an unlimited renewable source, such as wind, waves or sun. In the case of wind and waves—each of these sources can be utilized to produce the electricity used to charge up a battery in a vehicle. An ideal vehicle is whatever type of vehicle that car buyer wants to purchase, as mentioned earlier. If the consumer wants to purchase a large SUV, such as a Suburban or Hummer, the car should be electric, powerful and have a long-range of travel between charges. These cars should also be zero emission vehicles that are capable of powering a home or other facility, if necessary, as opposed to being a one-way consumer of power and electricity.
As researchers continue to develop new and improved engines, there are several areas that are focused on: performance, efficiency and ease of use. Performance can be measured by how a vehicle—whether it's a car, motorcycle or boat—responds under a “request” by the driver for more power. Whether a driver wants to accelerate quickly or tackle an incline at consistent speeds, performance is an important consideration when building and/or improving engines. Efficiency is related to performance, but is measured in how well the motor responds at various power output levels. Finally, the ease of use relates to whether the engine and related devices are easy to manufacture, easy to install and easy to maintain by a consumer. All of these component characteristics should be considered and balanced when designing, developing and building new engine technologies.
Electric vehicles, such as the Tesla Roadster from Tesla Motors, have certain advantages. They are considered “zero emission” vehicles because they produce no greenhouse gas. However, there are certain limitations associated with conventional electric vehicles. Most significantly, the range of an electric vehicle is limited by its battery capacity and the battery's long recharge time. A typical electric vehicle using a lead-acid battery has a range of less than 100 miles before a recharge is required. Advanced batteries such as nickel metal hydride (NiMH) and lithium-ion batteries have higher capacities, but are still incapable of being used for long-distance travel. Another drawback of an electric vehicle is its power source. While electric vehicles do not generate greenhouse gases, they rely on energy generated at power plants. Many of these power plants emit green-house gases, and much of the power generated at the power plants is wasted during the transmission from the power plants to the consumers.
The use of hybrid electric powertrains—a combination of an electric motor and an internal combustion engine—addresses the range limitation of electric vehicles; however, it doesn't address the issue of fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. Conventional hybrid electric vehicles typically have a small gasoline engine and an electric motor. The electric motor, the gasoline engine, or a combination of both can be used to power the vehicle. Thus, when the battery is low on energy, the vehicle can still operate using the gasoline engine alone. Typically, traditional hybrid electric vehicles use regenerative braking to charge their batteries.
There are several drawbacks to conventional hybrid electric vehicles. First, a traditional hybrid electric vehicle has both a complete internal-combustion engine system (including an engine and a transmission) and an electric motor system (including a generator, a battery, and electric motors). Therefore, the weight of the vehicle is greatly increased as compared to an electric vehicle or a gasoline vehicle with a similar-sized gasoline engine. In addition, the manufacturing cost of the vehicle is increased due to the need to have both an internal combustion engine system and an electric motor system. Finally, conventional regenerative braking in a hybrid electric system is inefficient because a significant portion of the energy produced by the gasoline engine is wasted and irrecoverable.
A problem common to both electric vehicles and conventional hybrid electric vehicles is the weight and cost of the batteries. Both types of vehicles must carry a large and heavy battery pack. Furthermore, with each successive charge and recharge cycle, the capacity of the battery pack degrades. Typically, the battery pack of an electric or traditional hybrid electric vehicle must be replaced after a certain period of use, such as 100,000 miles.
Therefore, it would be ideal to create an electric vehicle that has features solving many, if not all, of the problems stated above: longer range, lighter weight, highly efficient power generation, little or no fossil fuels, normal size or smaller motor system and a smaller battery pack. This application is related to U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 61/028,353 filed on Feb. 13, 2008, which is incorporated herein by reference. However, contemplated vehicles disclosed herein are electric vehicles, as opposed to the hybrid electric vehicles disclosed therein.